Ronin
by Jediempress
Summary: A routine patrol that ends up revealing several unexpected things. Features Kenshin and Sanosuke from Samurai X.


So this is a birthday present for my friend Sarieu. This would be a companion piece to A Life Renewed. It isn't necessary to have read that but it might help with background info if interested.

I also have to give a shout out to Riku-Rocks for being so damn helpful with this project.

I do not own the people but I wish I did.

Ronin

Zack strolled contentedly toward the edge of town, hands thrust in his pockets. When Leon had approached him stating he needed a favor, he had no idea that he would be thanked so… affectionately. Especially for something that the sable-haired man likely already knew that Zack would agree to.

...Not that anyone would ever hear Zack complain about a round of fantastic sex in the middle of the afternoon.

He tugged at his shirt, pulling the collar from his neck. The new harness for the Buster Sword still had a few design flaws, but it worked for now. He simply felt better having its comfortable weigh on his back again.

He caught sight of the two people he was meeting with up ahead. Due to an increase in strange activity outside of town, security patrols had been upped to groups of three. Tonight, he would be heading out with the short redhead and his tall black-haired companion that he had met a few days ago over in the new neighborhood.

"Hey, guys." Zack waved a friendly hello.

The taller one was chewing on a piece of straw. "What happened to Leon?"

"Was needed somewhere else." The First Class shrugged. "So you get me instead."

"That's a pretty big sword." He ran an appraising eye over Zack's shoulder. "You sure you can handle that thing?"

"Oh, trust me. I'm a lot tougher than I look," Zack grinned, "And it really isn't all that heavy."

The guy shrugged. What was his name again? "Didn't think it was; It just takes some talent to use something that size."

"Are we ready?" The redhead asked lightly. He had a katana tied to his waist.

Zack mock-saluted, "Yes, sir."

The other went over to the side of the nearby building. He took hold of a clothed, nearly seven-foot…

"Whoa." Zack whistled, "And you're asking _me_ about handling _my_ sword?"

"Notice Sanosuke never doubted your answers." The shortest member of the group chuckled.

Zack shook his head. "Well, between us you should feel completely safe."

Sanosuke laughed. "We run into any trouble and Kenshin will probably have it handled before we even draw our swords."

The SOLDIER flicked his violet eyes at the rather small man. "I don't doubt that. He looks like a fast bastard."

"You have no idea."

"I don't know about that," said Zack as the group moved out; "Might be interesting to see Kenshin here against Cloud."

While the redhead seemed completely disinterested, his companion appeared to seriously give it some thought. "Yeah, that it would be. The guy is completely useless when it comes to tools, but I've seen him fight a few times."

"He has excellent skills." Kenshin commented softly. "What he lacks is confidence."

"That, and his inability to let the past go," Zack added.

"The past is a heavy burden that no one is ever truly free of."

Zack raised an eyebrow at the rather morose tone. He glanced at Sanosuke who only shook his head. Obviously, there was a long painful history here.

"So, what's the route?" Zack practically strolled beside Sanosuke.

"We're going out into the Ravine Trail."

"Why do we waste manpower going out there?" Zack frowned. "I'm sure Sephiroth keeps it very well covered out there."

"We can't rely on him to protect the town."

Violet eyes narrowed. He knew the answer to this question but asked anyway, "Why not?"

"Because most of the town still questions his intentions." Kenshin spoke easily. "They cannot see past who he used to be."

Zack studied the back of his head. He felt he was a pretty judge of people, noticing many things most others would not. He also listened much more closely than commonly believed. "You've met Sephiroth?"

"No."

Well it sure as heck had not only sounded like he had, but it was if the two had actually held a discussion. Sephiroth had expressed the same thing when explaining why he did not come into town often. This was a bit…odd.

The walk out to the pass was uneventful. Once out of town, there had been no signs of anything that could be viewed as an even remote threat. Zack could already tell this was going to be a boring evening.

"You know," He drawled out, "I have yet to see a Heartless."

"How is that possible?" Sanosuke looked at him incredulously.

He shrugged, "Haven't been here that long."

"That can easily be rectified." Sephiroth's dry tone broke in behind them. While Sanosuke whirled around, fists up in defense, Zack and Kenshin simply turned. The winged man had a neutral expression, which told Zack that there was trouble somewhere.

"Where do you want us?" He shifted the Buster on his back.

"There has been an increase in activity just beyond the Dark Depths. I have come to the belief that one of Maleficent's lesser lieutenants has come and is attempting to organize them."

Sanosuke dropped his hands. "I bet it's that Pete guy again. He's such a pain and completely useless."

"Which would be why she continues to send him here," Sephiroth reasoned. "She knows she has no hope of retaking this world."

Zack had heard all about Pete from Sora. "So she sends him here to, what, distract us?"

"…And to get him out of her way;" Kenshin added.

"Precisely," Sephiroth kept his composed appearance, but there was a subtle change to his tone. "You are the one they once called the Battousai."

Kenshin's tone did not change; "And you are the Great General Sephiroth."

Both Zack and Sanosuke glanced between the two former soldiers. There was some sort of silent communication passing between the duo that both were rather certain they did not want to understand.

Sephiroth casually stepped forward. "I shall take you to the location."

The much shorter redhead fell perfectly in place beside him.

The other pair turned to each other. Zack shrugged. "This is gonna be interesting."

"If not more," Sanosuke raised his eyebrows and blew out a breath. "We better catch up."

--0—0—

Zack and Sanosuke kept a few feet back, trading stories quietly. They managed a very easy conversation, quickly discovering they had quite a bit in common. Ahead of them, Kenshin and Sephiroth remained silent.

By the time the quartet reached the Crystal Fissure, both of the rear guards were struggling not to bust out laughing. The stories had gotten increasingly random. Zack snickered, "So then Reno looks at the dumbass, rolls his eyes and just clubs him with his stun rod."

The other snorted. "I despise politicians."

"From what I've seen, not even politicians like other politicians." Sephiroth commented from ahead. "Now if the two of you are finished trading camp stories, we have arrived."

The narrow path they had been walking opened up about a dozen yards ahead. They had stopped near a large boulder nearly tall enough to block out Sephiroth's height. It was near full night now and the moonlight barely reached them.

"Beyond the expanse is another small canyon. That is where they have been gathering." Sephiroth explained in a near whisper. "There are three beings that appear to be charged with watching over them. The head one comes and goes."

"Well, let's go see exactly what we're looking at." Zack walked out on to the stone landing, followed by Sanosuke. At the edge, he looked down and whistled.

The cavity below was filled with mostly small black creatures with large yellow eyes and antennae. They hopped around, moving in jerky motions. A few other creatures roamed around among them.

"So those are Heartless."

Sanosuke stepped beside him. "Yep; the black ones are Shadows, the basic type, the blue floaters are Blue Rhapsodies, and the red are Red Nocturne. I only see a handful of Wyvern. There doesn't seem to be any of the real big ones."

"There are not." Sephiroth was over near the mountainside with Kenshin. The redhead had his arms folded and was looking at a small outcropping on the opposing stone face.

"How many you think there are?" Zack started counting but realized after eleven of them, that he was never going to get an accurate count.

"Seven hundred and ninety-four;" Kenshin answered quietly, still surveying.

"That does not include the three across the way." Sephiroth's hair blew back at a sudden wind gust. "You wouldn't happen to have another tie?"

Wordlessly, the smaller man handed over a leather strip.

Zack stared at the two for a long moment before shaking his head. "Well, I guess we notify Leon and them and clear this little group out."

"That won't be necessary."

Both black-haired men were about to ask what Sephiroth meant by that when a soft warping sound came from behind them. They turned in unison to see Riku and Sora stroll out of a dark corridor.

"How the heck…?"

"Hey, guys!" Sora greeted brightly. He walked up to Zack and Sanosuke as Riku headed toward Sephiroth and Kenshin.

The spiky-haired teenager looked over the side. "I _knew_ something was up!"

He glanced toward the three by the wall. "How we wanna do this?"

"The three of you clean up down there. We will collect those in charge." Sephiroth instructed. He then teleported away.

Riku glanced at Kenshin. "Want a lift?"

Kenshin turned to face him, one hand resting casually on his katana sheath. They did not say another word as Riku raised a hand and opened another corridor. With a barely noticeable grin and wave from the silver-haired one, they disappeared.

Zack stared at the now empty space. "Why hasn't anyone told me Riku can do that?"

"I didn't know either of them could do that." Sanosuke muttered with awe in his voice.

"Yeah, it's cool." Sora shrugged. He held out his hand and Guardian Soul appeared in it. "You guys ready for this?"

Sanosuke shrugged, shifting his grip on Zanza.

Zack laughed, pulling the Buster Sword off his back. "Let's clean up."

The trio jumped the ledge, landing with their backs to the rocks. As soon as their feet hit the ground the Shadows noticed them. As the Heartless moved in, Sora snickered. "Last time I did this I ran straight up the middle and got surrounded."

"That was stupid." Zack commented.

"Last time you did this, you were being backed by a duck and a dog." Sanosuke snorted. "You've traded up."

"So up the middle?" The boy grinned.

The former SOLDIER chuckled. "Sure, who needs a strategy?"

"Ten Munny says we get chewed out for being reckless." The other dark-haired one offered before stepping forward.

"You're on!" Sora charged ahead, hacking into the nearest Heartless. The older two laughed and followed him into the fray.

Zack decided there was something terribly _good_ feeling to be in combat again. He grinned as he cut through the mass of black, noting that Sanosuke was also having fun. By unspoken agreement, they left the various other Heartless to Sora and dealt with the Shadows.

As the space cleared out and he was able to spare the bit of attention, he glanced about the area. None of them knew where the other three had disappeared to. They could not be far and occasionally, Zack thought he heard the sounds of battle coming from above.

He had yet to see anything however.

Once the Heartless were down to a handful, the three somehow ended up back together. Zack and Sanosuke hung back, letting Sora simply whip out the Keyblade which spun out in a circle and dispatched the last four Shadows. Once it returned to his hand, he let it disappear.

"Well, that was certainly fun." Zack brushed sweaty bangs from his forehead.

Sanosuke had removed his headband and was wringing it out. "Any sign of the others?"

"I saw Kenshin up on the ledge there." Sora pointed to the outcropping said man had been studying earlier. "Man, he's _fast_. A couple of Shadows leapt up there and he just _tore_ into them!"

"Sounds right." He replaced the cloth around his hairline. "I think I caught Riku back where we started. It's so dark I couldn't tell if it was him or Sephiroth but I'm pretty sure he had Way to the Dawn."

"That just leaves Seph." Zack returned the Buster to his back.

A loud rumbling shook the ground, followed by someone shouting. Then there was a flash of light from the shallow cavern in the middle of the left side mountainside. Everything fell deathly quiet.

"What the hell was that?" Sanosuke muttered.

Out of nowhere, something large, black, and unconscious flew as if tossed out of the space. It landed with a sickening thud before the three. They stared down at it in stunned silence.

"Got 'em." Riku shouted down from the entrance the mass just flew from. Sephiroth and Kenshin stood to either side of him. All three looked serious despite Riku's casual statement.

What was more disturbing was that none of them seemed to have broken a sweat.

"Yeah, uh, we see that." Sora laughed nervously. "Do we want to know how?"

"Probably not."

Sephiroth stepped off the edge, wings lazily guiding him down. Riku and Kenshin simply jumped down. The trio approached the others as if they had not just been involved in a battle.

"He's not dead, is he?" Zack lightly kicked at the mass. He assumed it was a he.

"Of course not." Kenshin replied.

"We don't kill." Sephiroth finished.

"Okay, you two are really creeping me out." Zack shook his head. "It's like your brains are working on the same frequency or something."

Sora had knelt down and with Riku's help flipped the limp body over.

"Ha! I knew it!" Sanosuke pointed. "It was Pete."

"We better get him back to town." Sora looked at Riku across from him. The silver-haired teenager nodded and the best friends hefted the body up between them.

Riku opened up another portal and they moved toward it. He glanced over his shoulder and smirked. "Have fun with the rest of your patrol."

The corridor sealed and there was a moment's peace.

Sephiroth glanced at Kenshin. "Shall we proceed?"

The redhead smiled, cross-shaped scar pulling on his cheek.

The pair then moved off in a completely companionable manor. They looked like two friends out for a walk.

Zack tilted his head. "I don't think I want to know."

Sanosuke blew out a breath. "Those two have a lot more in common than you think. Looks like Sephiroth's finally made a friend."

"But…. But _I'm_ his friend!" The First Class stuttered. "He can't replace me!"

He stormed forward, determined to catch up. Sanosuke was right beside him, giving him an amused look. Despite Zack's outraged tone of voice, there was a large grin on his face.

He was really glad he had taken Leon's shift.


End file.
